Sam Bankman-Fried has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the fraud conviction that resulted in a 25-year prison sentence, according to a petition reviewed by The New York Times.

The petition follows a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit’s decision in June to uphold the conviction. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers described Supreme Court review as “urgently necessary.” The Supreme Court grants and hears arguments in about 1% of cases filed each term, according to its own account, and review is discretionary. The court has not indicated whether it will take the case. If the court declines to hear it, the Second Circuit’s decision will remain in place.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argue that the trial court should have allowed him to present evidence that no FTX customer ultimately lost money. The petition says there were “always more than enough assets available to repay customers (as they now have been repaid, with substantial interest).”

Prosecutors reject that argument. At sentencing, the Justice Department said Bankman-Fried led a scheme that defrauded FTX customers by “misappropriating billions of dollars of those customers’ funds,” regardless of whether customers eventually recovered their money. The case also involved $1.7 billion allegedly defrauded from FTX investors and $1.3 billion from Alameda lenders; neither amount represented customer deposits. The repayments were made through FTX’s bankruptcy plan, which valued claims in dollars as of November 2022, when Bitcoin traded at around $16,000. The Justice Department’s sentencing announcement is available here.

The petition separately challenges an $11 billion forfeiture, calling it a “crushing fine” that violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on excessive fines.

Bankman-Fried’s clemency request

Bankman-Fried is pursuing multiple avenues to challenge the conviction. He applied to U.S. President Donald Trump for clemency in June, and the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s records list the request as pending. It was filed under the category “pardon after completion of sentence,” even though Bankman-Fried has more than two decades remaining on his sentence.

Trump said in January that he would not consider pardoning Bankman-Fried, according to The Times. In July, the Senate unanimously opposed clemency for him, a rare point of agreement in a chamber otherwise divided over cryptocurrency policy. Bankman-Fried donated nearly $40 million during the 2021-22 election cycle, making him the second-largest donor to Democrats after George Soros, according to OpenSecrets.

Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019 and grew the company to a $32 billion valuation through stadium naming rights and celebrity endorsements. FTX collapsed during a liquidity crisis in November 2022 after reports that customer funds had been used to cover losses at his trading firm, Alameda Research.

Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas that December and convicted the following year after a month-long trial in Manhattan. He has maintained his innocence, although he withdrew a motion for a new trial this year. The Supreme Court has not said whether it will consider his petition.